I'm thinking we should just go ahead and have Obama put troops in every country in the world. So when stuff goes down that we shouldn't stick our noses in, we can have the resources necessary to take care of the issue without the need to send anybody anywhere! And better yet, knowing this will severly stretch out current military far beyond operational limits, we should just go ahead and skip past initiating a draft and just go ahead and pluck all 16+ year olds that car fire a weapon in the general direction of the enemy (forign or domestic), male or female, gay or straight! We don't discriminate! Ohhh, and while we're on a roll, let's just dissolve the United States, obsorb all countries we have troops in and call it "The Empire". This is starting to sound familiar. I should write a script before someone steals my idea and get reactivated!!!**Check out my wifes cupcakes**

Now that the cold war between Russia and the West "Appears" to have gone, do we still need Nato?

Good question.

Technically, when the berlin wall came a tumblin down, NATO shoul've been caputski. However, you'd probably tick off a lot of people, Europeans mainly. I know when I was stationed in Aviano back during the Kosovo thingy, the US pumped over $500 mil into that base alone, building a new school, barracks, admin buildings, etc... and called it a joint NATO effort.**Check out my wifes cupcakes**

Who said the cold war is over? Barry Obamma? He is just more flexible... [smile]

Just because the wall came down does not mean we a BFF. They held hostage many countries with natural gas. They have Fifth-generation jet fighter's as does China. And all of this because of fossil fuels. Once again a powerhouse and threat to peace.

This has everything to do with the NATO mandate to defend all members. Did we forget our friends that aided us during the 911 times. We had NATO members assisting in our Defense days afterward. Let's not forget we are a member of an organization that is meant to prevent wars. We obviously are not the only countries sending troops to TurkeyIn a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Shut down NATO. and let the EU make their own defense pact if they so desire.

The problem is that the EU is not politically stable enough to replace NATO with a credible alternative. Turkey was accepted as an official EU candidate in 1999, and negotiations started in 2005 which will take a decade. Turkey is currently one of the 22 NATO members along with the USA, and has had Syrian missiles aimed at it.